Gun mount



d. 22, i946. H, w. EVANS i 2,409,618

GUN MOUNT Filed Dec. 13, 1940 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 2 2l 1 /9 M o /9 27 22 I 28 Q9 I7 E I @Tf "l 55 l 49 26 BY (w ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 22, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Governmentl for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to a gun mount.

In equipping armored vehicles with guns it has been the general practice to provide special mounts and to arrange them for prescribed fields of fire. With a View towards facilitating production and increasing the usefulness of the weapons it is proposed in the present invention to provide a gun mount which is adapted to receive the various types of cradle mounts employed by other arms of the military service so that the gun may be readily dismounted from the vehicle and set up on a conventional tripod.

It is also the purpose of the invention to provide a mount which may be moved cn a track completely around the periphery of the armored vehicle body so that each gun has an all-around eld of iire and all guns may be distributed or converged as the occasion requires.

More specifically the gun mount comprises a carriage including means for quickly locking and unlocking it to the track, means for cross-leveling the pintle, and means for locking the pintle against rotation.

The specific nature of the invention as well as other objects and advantages thereof will clearly appear from a description of a preferred embodiment as shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a view taken through a vehicle body and showing the mount in side elevation;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the mount;

Fig. 3 is a view in rear elevation;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a plan View;

Figs. 6 and 7 are sectional views on the corresponding lines of Fig. 2;

Fig. 8 is a perspective View of the segments;

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of one of the jaws of the clamp;

Fig. 10 is an exploded perspective View of elements of the cross-leveling mechanism.

Referring to the drawings by characters of reference there is shown a support 5 which is the wall of a gunners cockpit and constitutes the body of a vehicle. An I-bearn rail 6 held in spaced relation to the support fby a bracket 'l forms a track for a movable carriage 8. The carriage is a channel member having a back plate 9 parallel to the body of the rail and an upper plate I0 and lower plate l I respectively overlying and underlying the flanges of the rail.

The upper and lower plates carry identical sets of rollers, namely a center roller i2 for engaging the face I3 of the rail, a roller M mounted on a fixed stud l5 for engaging the outer side I6 of the flange adjacent the support, and a roller Il for engaging the inner side of the flange. The roller Il is carried by a yoke I9 which is loosely mounted on a bolt 20 so as to be capable of slight displacement between the ange and the back plate 9 of the carriage.

The carriage is provided at its sides with a pair of laterally spaced brackets 2|-2I having aligned apertures 22-22 for journaling a pair of shafts 23-23. The adjoining inner ends of the shafts are supported in a bearing 24 formed on the back plate 9. A pair of side arms 25-25 of a handle 26 are keyed on the shafts 23 and retained by a nut 2l. A pair of torque springs 28--28 each mounted on the inner end of a shaft 23 and anchored to the shaft and to the bearing 24 normally maintain the shafts in a predetermined angular position with the handle 26 depressed as shown in Figs. land 2.

.The shafts 23 are provided with oppositely threaded portions 29 and 30 for threadedly mounting clamp-ing jaws respectively 3| and 32. The jaws are similar and each one is provided at its upper and at its lower extremity with a laterally projecting wedge 33. The jaws are mounted on the shafts 23 with the wedges 33 directed outwardly (Fig. 5) in rear of the rollers Il. With the handle 26 in depressed or locking position the jaws have been moved outwardly in response to rotation of the oppositely threaded portions 29 and 30 of the shafts 23 and the wedges 33 engage the rollers I1 pressing the latter against the inner faces I8 of the flanged track by virtue of the wedging action of the inclined faces 33 acting' between the rollers I1 and the backplate 9 thereby holding the carriage against traversing movement on the track.

When the handle is elevated against the action of the torque springs 23 the jaws, by virtue of their threaded engagement with the shafts 23, are translated inwardly towards one another, and the wedges are disengaged from the rollers I1. The carriage is now free to be traversed on the track.

The rear face of the back plate 9 is formed with a horizontally projecting stud 34 for rotatably receiving a bearing 35 on a socket member 36. This socket member is similar to the conventional socket of a tripod mount for machine guns and rotatably receives the standard pintle 38 which carries the gun and cradle. The lower end of the pintle is formed with a peripheral groove 39 for receiving a pin 4! mounted in the socket member and held in position of angular adjustment by means of a click latch 4l. The pin is formed Witha notch 4:2 so that, in one position of the pin the pintle may be removed. The lower end of the socket member is split as at 43 so that when brought together by a screw 44 and lever t5 it may serve as a vise to hold the pintle against rotation.

The socket member 3 is rotatably retained on the stud 34 by means of a pair of segmental plates iS-e5 which aresecured to the back plate S of the carriage by means of screws 41. This provision is made so that the socket member may be cross-leveled when the vehicle is on uneven ground.

The carriage is provided with a pair of downwardly inclined brackets 48--48 for mounting a screw shaft 49 having a handwheel 55- at one end. A nut 5l on the screw shaft has a flat side 52 with a projecting stud 53. A washer 5A formed with a projecting b-lock 55 is journaled on the stud 5.3. The block 55 rides in the slot E of a plate 5l which is secured tothe socket member by bolts 5,8. The washer and the nut bear against the plate 5.7 and the nut is thereby constrained to translational movement on rotation v ated by one hand of the gunner.

4 of the screw shaft 49 by means of the handwheel 5B. On lateral displacement of the plate 51 through the rotatably adjustable block 55 the socket member is rotated on the stud 34 to crosslevel the pintle.

The handwheel 5E! for cross-leveling, the handie; 2.a for unlocking the carriage from the track, and the lever l5 for locking the pintle are al1 conveniently grouped so that they may ybe oper- The pintle may be readily removed and mounted in a tripod when it is desired to emplace the gun on the ground.

I claim:

1. In a gun mount, a support, a gun-carrying member journaled on the support, a plate fixed to said member and having a slot, a screw shaft mounted in the support, a nut on the screw shaft having al projecting stud disposed in the slot of the plate, and ay washer between the nut and plate and having a block journaled on the stud and riding inthe slot of the plate.

2. In a gun mount, a support, a gun-carrying member journaled on the support, a plate fixed to said member and having a slot, a screw shaft mounted in the support, a nut on the screw shaft having a projecting stud disposed in the slot of the plate, and a block journaled on the stud and riding in the slot of the plate.

HAROLD w. EVANS. 

